Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Free Ozzfest!!!!

That photo on the right (which I took at Ozzfest 04) sums up what a lot of people may be feeling right now. Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne have just announced that Ozzfest will be free this year!From Ozzfest.com: That's right, OZZY and SHARON OSBOURNE and tour producer LIVE NATION broke the news today at the Concert Industry Consortium in Los Angeles that their 12th annual hard rock spectacular--a 25-date extravaganza launching July 7 in Los Angeles--is pulling the plug on ticket prices and giving the power back to the fans calling this summer’s OZZFEST "FreeFest."

To gain entry into the event, fans will go to www.ozzfest.com or www.livenation.com to find links that will direct them to special sponsor sites where tickets can be secured. More details regarding the process are forthcoming.

This should be interesting. Hopefully the process for getting tickets won't involve anything too painful like virtual purgatories, like I experienced trying to get Arcade Fire tickets. Big festivals are often overshadowed by big soporate sponsors whoring out their product everywhere you look. It will probably be taken to the extreme when sponsors are paying for the whole event. Also, with free tickets, you run the risk of attracting a lot of people who don't actually care about the music. From my experience that has been the thing that has ruined the most concerts for me: people at shows who care more about conversations with their friends, or their text messages, than the actual show.